In late 1932, farmers across Western Australia were facing an unprecedented crisis. Over twenty thousand migrating emus, large flightless birds standing nearly six feet tall, descended on cultivated wheat fields during a devastating drought. They ripped through fencing, devoured crops, and left open pathways for rabbits to ravage the rest.
Desperate for a solution, local farmers petitioned the Australian Minister of Defence for military assistance.
The government deployed a small detachment of the Royal Australian Artillery, armed with two heavy Lewis automatic machine guns and ten thousand rounds of ammunition. The plan was straightforward: herd the birds into concentrated kill zones and eliminate the problem through superior firepower.
What followed turned into an administrative and tactical embarrassment.
Whenever the soldiers opened fire, the emus scattered in every direction into tiny evasive clusters rather than panicking as a single herd. Their thick feathers absorbed glancing hits, while their remarkable top speeds of over 30 miles per hour let them easily outrun military transport trucks across rough terrain. Sand and debris frequently jammed the guns, and during one major ambush of a thousand birds, the weapon jammed after firing just a handful of rounds.
After roughly a month of operations, the military withdrew. With thousands of rounds expended and only a fraction of the birds taken down, an opposition politician famously asked in Parliament whether a medal would be struck for this war, to which another member replied: "Only for the emus, who have won every round so far."
Deploying heavy artillery against wild birds only to be out-maneuvered by running wildlife is easily one of the most bizarre chapters in military history. That wraps up Day 5 of Crazy History Facts!
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